Redmi 5 Plus – Is it the best mid-range 18:9 display phone?

Now Xiaomi has got a good hold of the Indian market with their low budget with decent specs devices. Their Redmi series is for the budget buyers, so now they’re up with another addition to it, the Redmi 5 Plus.

For a liking Xiaomi has again thrown-in a silicon protective case inside and we hope it becomes a trend with all brands. The phone feels kind of Redmi Note but don’t believe these rumors, as this is not replacing the Redmi Note series. Redmi 5 Plus does look and feels sleek, though this is not a successor to the Redmi Note 4 but the comparison is obvious, at-least physically, anyways the Redmi 5 Plus is 0.4mm slimmer than the Redmi Note 4 and also narrower but taller and heavier.

The back curves at the edges, the use of metal, and the 180gm weight which kind of does give it a certain heft, all coupled with that display makes the Redmi 5 Plus looks really sleek and feel premium in the hand.

Upfront it is all about the display, Xiaomi’s gone with an 18:9 display panel on this device. It is larger than on the Redmi 5 and also happens to have a higher resolution. Xiaomi is using a 5.99-inch panel or call it a 6-inch LCD panel with a resolution of 2160 x 1080, more commonly called FullHD Plus.

This results in 400ppi which is quite sharp for about everything that you can do in day-to-day usage except for the VR, it has got excellent viewing angles and even more color accuracy too. Due to the 18:9 display, Xiaomi is again using the on-screen keys here. The notification LED, the ear-piece and a 5-MP front facing are all found above this display.

To the back there is a change from the Redmi 5. Beneath the same 12-mp camera sensor now there is a dual-tone dual-LED flash, then there is a fingerprint scanner that works really well and this back is made out of metal. The power button and the volume rockers are present to the right, the 3.5mm audio jack, the IR blaster and the noise canceling microphone can be found up the top. There’s a hybrid sim-slot to the left and to the bottom there’s a primary microphone, speaker and a Micro-USB port, a type-C would’ve been a better option as being a current generation model.

Now getting to the hardware, there’s a change in the battery too, now here we have a 4000mAH battery. The chip inside though is the same, it’s a Snapdragon 625 processor with 3GB or 4GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of internal storage respectively. As per this the performance should be decent and peppy. The Redmi 5 Plus is riding on Mi UI 9 built on top of Android 7 Nougat, this is kind of a heavier skin compared to stock Android though it does bring a lot of functionality with it.

Just like the Redmi 5, this one has the same 12-mp f/2.2 camera with 1.25micron sized pixels which sounds like the primary camera of the Mi A1. This rear camera gives really nice picture in broad day light with close to real colors and details. You may notice slight ‘Bokeh’ effect while you focus on to the subject which makes the pictures looks dramatic. The selfie camera is good for social posting but not for showing off the camera skills.

Now we come to the pricing department. The Redmi 5 Plus come in two storage variants, 3GB RAM with 32GB storage and 4GB of RAM with 62GB storage priced at 999 and 1299 Chinese Yuan respectively. That converts to $155 and $200 US dollars or 9800/- and 12800/- Indian rupees respectively. So let’s see how this budget boy fares at the Indian market.